Saturday, April 26, 2008

Remember the rush to secure and inspect cargo after 9-11? We watched helplessly as the wheels of our federal government turned ever so slowly. The issue of US taxpayers being exposed to nuclear or biological threat was merely a whisper when compared to the demands of the special interests and prompt distribution of consumer goods.

Well, we have inched closer to a solution. The Department of Homeland Security has contracted OSI Systems Inc. to support the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office's data-fusion program. This program works to improve existing nuclear threat detection techniques. Like an upgrade to the shaky manual inspection process we have currently.

We still inspect and clear a mere fraction of the millions of cargo crates that come into this country yearly. DHS has never been fully funded or managed for the daunting task of mass cargo inspections. Now there’s a chance.OSI Systems is a developer of security and inspections; Rapiscan Systems is the division that handles what DHS is looking for. Taxpayers are kicking out $1.5 million for this contract. Feel better yet?

Through the development of X-ray and neutron based inspection methods, Rapiscan expects to deploy a better nuclear threat detection system for Screening. Making the apparatus larger and more reliable will speed things up at our ports. This will make the inspections less of a selective hit-or-miss procedure.Of course there is always a down side. The advancement of this company and the increased output of production has prompted their manufacturing to move…guess where? Suzhou, China.

Located approximately 50 miles east of Shanghai, This facility will initially be focused on developing and manufacturing healthcare products for the emerging markets but the broad intent is to increase the production of the port inspection apparatus for the US.

We couldn’t offer OSI any tax breaks to manufacture here in this country? Of course not. Remember the special interest groups pushing for consumer goods distribution? Where are they making the most money? Cheap labor in China. Nice to see our government working for the US worker again.

2 comments:

Anything to do with port security is a good thing. What everyone wants to know is when will congress tighten the southern border? Stranger things have crossed north from Mexico without detection.

Its evident locally that the illegals are making it up to the Hudson Valley. Will chartoff do anything before Bush leaves office? Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Kingston have an obvious situation brewing, and it affects our tax dollars.